Thursday, July 02, 2015

July 1, 2015HSE management 'clearly incapable', say Portlaoise parentshttp://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/hse-management-clearly-incapable-say-portlaoise-parents-1.2218094Families who lost children told to 'go away and have more children', health committee hearsThe HSE refused to advertise a helpline for patients on the night of the Prime Time programme, as requested by Patient Focus, because it didn't believe it would attract many calls, Cathriona Molloy of the patient organisation told the committee. The organisation was forced to use its own phone number for a helpline, which attracted hundreds of calls in the days after the programme, she said.

June 22, 2015HSE orders review into nine maternity caseshttp://utv.ie/News/2015/06/22/HSE-orders-review-into-nine-maternity-cases-39584The HSE has recommended a full review into nine maternity cases at three separate hospitals. A team examined 23 cases from the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise, three from the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar and two from the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick between 1985 and 2013. It found that nine cases should be subjected to a full systems analysis review.

June 15, 2015'Cloak of secrecy' around abuse of intellectually disabledhttp://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cloak-of-secrecy-around-abuse-of-intellectually-disabled-336948.htmlFine Gael's Fergus O'Dowd made the claim after the Irish Examiner revealed 21 HSE workers have been sacked or suspended for alleged sexual, physical, and financial abuse of residents at care facilities for adults with severe intellectual disabilities since January 2014. Details published on Saturday show that, over the past 18 months, HSE management has been aware of serious incidents at seven such facilities.

June 12, 2015What the hospital scandals teach us about managementhttp://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/what-the-hospital-scandals-teach-us-about-management-31296032.htmlHR policies are such that managers will tell you they are powerless to deal with people who ought to be sanctioned even for quite serious reasons.It can take six months to replace a nurse through the shared HR services centre in Manorhamilton.There is no effective performance management system for managers. Management structures are in a state of constant flux; many managers don't have the delegated authority they need to do their job; and some support functions are too centralised.Compared to the HSE, the hospitality industry in Ireland has a better system for the training and cultural formation of hotel managers, sending them to the best hotels around the world on a carefully structured development programme. The results speak for themselves.

March 5, 2015HSE 'Gave Contracts to Former Staff' Without Tenderhttp://www.todayfm.com/HSE-gave-contracts-to-former-staff-without-tenderThe claims are understood to mostly centre around cases where contracts were awarded to companies led by former HSE staff, or where ex-HSE workers are now on the payroll. They include cases where the HSE has paid former staff members for spaces in care homes, without first investigating whether better deals could be found elsewhere. Committee chairman John McGuinness says some former HSE staff members have made huge money from unadvertised contracts.

These are just some of the reasons that the HSE has been in the news lately. And what is the Government doing about all this? Why, it's providing free healthcare for children less than six years old WHO AREN'T EVEN SICK IN THE FIRST PLACE. This isn't just an inefficient use of resources. This is immoral in every way and I don't know one politician who's had the stones to come out and say that, for fear they'd lose votes in leafy suburbs or roasted by a "Mums Outraged .." headline in the Indo or the Daily Mail.

Banana Republic. Will anything ever change in this godforsaken country?